In a conventional ore excavating bucket, a number of excavating teeth are coupled by adapters to the lip of the bucket, and the teeth are used with the bucket for loosening the ore to be excavated from the ground. Generally, the lip, adapter and teeth structure of a conventional bucket is extremely heavy in weight and, as a result, expensive to produce and to maintain. The teeth and adapter of the bucket must often be replaced because of the heavy attrition due to the movement of the ore material over the lip, adapter and teeth due to their specific designs.
A need, therefore, exists for improvements in such lip, adapter and teeth designs to keep the weight to a minimum and to minimize the frequency at which they are replaced so as to keep the cost of excavation down without sacrificing the normal life of the bucket. The present invention is directed to satisfying this need.